A Day in the Life: Watch This Video Journalist Shoot from New Heights Filming a Window Cleaner in New York City

New York might be one of the flashiest cities in the world, but it’s also one of the muckiest. It takes a lot of skilled workers to keep the city’s filth at bay. Unnoticed by many, an elite SWAT team of window cleaners squeegees the dirt from the city’s vistas, one window at a time. Last month the New York Times profiled one such window cleaner, Brent Weingard, and released a video story on his work. What the newspaper didn’t publish was how the video was shot.

Late last week the Times released behind-the-scenes footage of the heights photojournalist David Frank went to in order to film Weingard at work. Standing some 10 stories above unforgiving New York concrete, supported by just a canvas belt and two metal pegs attached to the building in front of him, Frank captured what it’s like doing the daily job of a window cleaner. Though nervous at first, Frank quickly grew to enjoy his new shooting position. “Once I got settled, I put the viewfinder to my eye, and I knew instantly that this was all worth it,” Frank says in the video. “I’m out there saying to myself, Wow, this is really a cool image.”

Though his wife and daughter were not too pleased by Frank’s risky behavior, it was all in a day’s work for the photojournalist.

Wondering what Frank created through his efforts? Watch Frank’s video story on Weingard, expert grime fighter: